The sports world as a whole, in conjunction with the entire globe, is reeling right now as they react to the global pandemic that is the COVID-19 coronavirus.
On Wednesday afternoon, the NCAA announced that all March Madness games would be carried out without fans in the arena, and just hours later the NBA suspended their entire season minutes after it was announced that one of their players had presumptively tested positive for the coronavirus. On Thursday morning, it was reported that one of the player’s teammates had presumptively tested positive as well.
On Thursday morning, the Washington Redskins were the first NFL team to jump out in front of this, announcing that all team travel will be suspended for the near future, grounding both coaches and scouts amidst health concerns. This likely will not be the only measure taken in the NFL, though, as many owners and decision-makers are talking to decide whether they should push the entire league year back by a couple of weeks in order to reset and take the necessary precautions.
So if that were to happen, what would it look like? We’d notice the first change next week with NFL Free Agency set to get underway on Wednesday afternoon. If this new plan to get underway, that would be delayed by a couple weeks. Here are all of the dates that would likely change, should the league push back their deadlines by two weeks:
April 1 — NFL Free Agency Begins
April 12 — Annual NFL Owners Meetings
April 20 — Offseason Workouts Begin
May 7 — NFL Draft Begins
May 15 — NFL Rookie Camp Begins
May 28 — NFLPA Rookie Premiere
Early August — Training Camp
August 20 — NFL Hall of Fame Game
August 25 — Deadline to Report
September 19 — 53-man Roster Cut
September 24— Week 1 Begins
An announcement that this type of delay would be enacted has not yet happened, but it seems likely at this point. We will keep you up to date on everything we know, as soon as we know it.
